====== How to list channels ======

===== Introduction to /LIST =====
IRC has a directory of channels (rooms to chat in) built right in.  The command to access this directory is called /LIST.  

You can type /list (or sometimes /quote list) in to your IRC software as you normally talk.  By default, this will show you any channels with chat in them in the last 20 minutes.  

===== Advanced features =====
Sometimes you will want to see all channels, or only those channels that have more than some number of people in them.  The /list command has some advanced features for these cases

==== Limit by number of users ====
You can tell /LIST to show you channels bigger than a certain number, by using the following syntax:
  /QUOTE LIST >20          (Shows all channels with more than 20 people joined)
  /QUOTE LIST <5           (Shows all channels with more than 5 people joined)

==== Limit by activity ====
You can have /LIST show channels active recently by using the following:
  /QUOTE LIST M<60         (Shows all channels where someone spoke in the last 60 minutes)
  /QUOTE LIST M<5          (Shows all channels where someone spoke in the last 5 minutes)

==== Limit by longevity ====
You can have /LIST show old or new channels like this:
  /QUOTE LIST C<10       (Shows channels created less than 10 minutes ago)
  /QUOTE LIST C>10080    (Shows channels created more than 7 days ago 60*24*7=10080)

==== Match by name ====
Finally, you can search for a channel by name, using the pattern matching syntax. In this method, a "*" (asterisk) is a wildcard:
  /QUOTE LIST *geek*    (Shows any channel with the word "geek" in its name)

==== Seeing all channels ====
By default, /QUOTE LIST by itself automatically is the same as "/QUOTE LIST M<20", that is, it only shows channels where people are talking in the last 20 minutes. If you want to see everything, provide another filter to override the default like this: 
  /QUOTE LIST >0       (Show all channels with more than 0 people in them)
CAUTION: the list can be quite large!

==== Combining filters ====
You can do more than one search filter at the same time by seperating the arguments with commas like this:
  /QUOTE LIST >20,M<20     (Show channels with 21 or more people, and someone spoke in the last 20 minutes)

==== /List syntax (for technical folk) ====
If you run 
 /QUOTE LIST -h
the server will remind you of the syntax for using /LIST.